Ben Rak: Hoot-Dash Views - Art Collector

For the past several years, Ben Rak’s practice has explored the ways a consumer culture interacts with different aspects of every day life. Past projects have explored the relationship between consumerism and identity, sub-cultural affiliations, mass production, housing and domestic purchasing.

In Rak’s work, images are constructed through the printed grid of the barcode; the ubiquitous symbol of consumerism. They are transformed into a culturally significant pattern that repeats itself like cultural currency, translating complex cultural systems to a simplified version that are easy to digest. This transformation suggests an assimilation into one true culture, an order that seems to embody all people – consumer culture.

Rak’s work is created across a diverse range of media, mostly those based on printmaking techniques. Many of these techniques were initially developed as commercial production processes. The artist’s intention is to leverage their commercial aspect to further the conceptual rational of the content.